Paramahamsa Prajnanananda
Paramahamsa Prajnanananda Quotes about Desire
You attained this rare human birth. You have the desire for evolution. You have accepted the path of Yoga. Practise purity. Let all your perceptions be pure. Let all your thoughts be pure. Let all your activities be pure. Then you are close to the goal – self-realization is at hand.
How do we preplan our bodies and our lives? Through our own karma. Every moment we do something, then the impression of that karma remains within us. The sum total of these karmic impressions directs us where to go and what to do. For example, going to a spiritual retreat was an aggregation of karma. First, the thought appeared; perhaps someone told you about it. Then the desire to go was manifest. Next you planned how to have a holiday from work, how to arrange money, how to travel, and what clothes you needed. You had to perform many karmas for just one desire, and the sum total of that karma and the aggregation of the planning is called prakalpita, pre-thought or previously planned.
“This body is pre-thought, pre-planned.” Before we are born into this world we plan our bodies. We decide what kind of body we want. But we do not remember this; we have forgotten. We also decide where to be born; it is our plan, nobody else’s. The same holds true for the kind of life we want to live. When we travel, we decide where to go. When we go on a trip, we arrange many things. Similarly, when we travel to earth we arrange and prepare our bodies, our families, what kind of life we will have; it was all our doing. That is why it is said, ittham prakalpite dehe: “In this body that was preplanned by you.” Thus, we need not be unhappy with our bodies. Why? We receive what we wanted. We receive the body we desired. If we want to experience freedom we have to cherish this desire in us. Ittham prakalpite dehe: “This body is our thought, our creation.”
First is your own desire. Second good company. Third is your practice. Fourth is your perfection.
Only desire is not enough.